I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, and I was happy to have a choice that wasn’t a perpetuation of the prior 12 years of greed-is-good Republican rule.

I was on their side when the right-wing smear machine went after the Clintons. I was very upset with the way Hillary was demonized, before she even got into the White House. The feminist in me liked seeing a strong woman as First Lady. I supported her efforts on issues such as health care. She wasn’t my first choice, but I was more than willing to vote for her if she got the democratic nomination. (NOTE: yes, I know that Clinton policies were not as favorable to minorities as they like to say, but some things were better and it was a vast improvement over Reagan and Pappy Bush.)

So you can imagine my surprise and sense of betrayal over the primary in my current home state of SC.

Please don’t try to tell me that I’m imagining things. I’m 50 years old and have lived most of my life in the integrated North and in California. I know what the code words are, I’ve heard them all, as well as every lame excuse possible why I shouldn’t be upset or offended by them.

Would the term “shuck and jive” have been used with regard to Edwards? Would he have been compared to Jesse Jackson? I seriously doubt it. The mere idea seems ridiculous.(more…)

If, like me, you read blogs by Women of Color (most notably BlackAmazon), you’re familiar with the never-ending tension between White feminists and WoC.

Basically, it goes like this: White feminist says something dismissive about our issues, tells us to wait our turn, or says something that perpetuates a stereotype. Feminist of Color calls her out on it. White feminist cries “I’m not a racist! You’re being mean to me!”

By so doing, the White feminist puts herself in the position of Victim, and there is much rallying to support the poor flower of womanhood and much chastisement of the mean old Feminist of Color.

Seems to me, you can’t have it both ways. Playing the victim is pandering to patriarchy, where (white) women are fragile and need protection. Not the best path to empowerment, in my opinion. Yet it happens over and over. To me it looks like using privilege to advance.

Watch for this to happen, now that the Democratic primary is between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary already capitalized on this when she cried, before the New Hampshire primary. Oh, wait, it’s already begun.

Obama has to be really, really careful. We know what happens to Black men who hurt White women.